Abdication

Abdication (from the Latin abdicatio, disowning, renouncing, from ab, from, and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one) is the act of renouncing and resigning from a formal office, especially from the supreme office of state. (Although in Roman law the term was applied to the disowning of a family member, as the disinheriting of a son.) A similar term for an elected or appointed official is resignation.

References

• Public domain 1911 edition of The New Century Book of Facts published by the King-Richardson Company, Springfield, Massachusetts.